Roles of Estrogen in Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Roles of Estrogen in Development - Essay Example Most species with two sexes exhibit sexually dimorphic behavior and physical characteristics. New research suggests that the presence of estrogen, specifically estradiol, has an active role in sexual differentiation. Several sexual dimorphic structures in the brain have been observed in laboratory experiments. This study had been performed using male and female rats and had proved the differences in size of corpus callosum between two sexes had existed facilitated by estrogen. Estrogen plays an important role in male reproduction, critical for sustained fertility in some species. Reducing estrogen's interaction with its receptor(s) in monkey and mouse models is associated with reduced sperm motility and, in some cases, documented elimination of sperm fertilizing ability, suggesting that normal epididymal function may be estrogen dependent. The objective of the experiments was to evaluate the effects of reduced endogenous estrogen on development of epididymal function in the pig, a species in which males have very high levels of endogenous estrogen. Furthermore, reducing endogenous estrogen during postnatal development appears to have transient effects on porcine epididymal function. These transient effects suggest that the pig, with its high endogenous estrogen, may respond differently than other species to reduced estrogen synthesis (McCarthy, et al). This particular study provides a viable claim of estrogens importance on development of reproductive sys tem particularly in male specie. The development of the positive feedback of estrogen in normally fed animals and its possible alterations in animals subjected to restricted food intake has been the focus of another study and had indicated that the gonadotropin response to estrogen positive feedback develops gradually and quantitatively as the animal matures and undernutrition-induced delayed puberty is not caused by inability of the hypothalamic-pituitary unit to respond to positive estrogen feedback, but rather to ovarian failure to release estrogen in amounts sufficient to trigger a gonadotropin surge (Ronnekleiv, et al). Another study had determined whether endogenous estrogen, the levels of which increase with advancing pregnancy, regulates growth and development of the baboon fetal adrenal cortex. In the end it propose that estrogen acts directly on the fetal adrenal cortex to selectively repress the morphological and functional development of the fetal zone, potentially as a feedback system to maintain physio logical secretion of estrogen precursors and thus placental estrogen production to promote normal primate fetal and placental development (Albretch, et al). Despite the estrogens' significance on development, some studies apparently speak of its contribution to developmental errors. Evidences have accumulated that exposure to environmental components with estrogenic activity causes reproductive disorders in human populations. Studies conducted over the past 50 years have clearly shown a continual decline in semen quality accompanied by an increase in male reproductive disorders during this period in industrial countries. As healthy gametes are a prerequisite for healthy children, such disorders are a significant problem not only for the current society, but also for future generations. Epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies have suggested that excessive exposure to estrogens and xenoestrogens during fetal and neonatal

Employee Resourcing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Employee Resourcing - Essay Example Employee resourcing is an important function undertaken by organizations to ensure that they obtain and retain the human capital that they need, for productive employment. This includes aspects of employment practice that relate to welcoming people to the organization, and releasing them if it is necessary to do so. Employee resourcing is a key part of human resource management which "matches human resources to the strategic and operational needs of the organization" (Armstrong, 2003: 347), and ensures the complete utilization of those resources. Its main focus is on selecting and promoting people who fit the culture and the strategic requirements of the organization. Recruitment is the process by which candidates are located and attracted for employment in an organization. The necessary effort and extent of the search is based on the selection rate and the qualifications and skill sets needed for job competence. Companies usually attempt to attract large numbers of candidates, depending on the job and purpose of the recruitment effort. Further, they aim to fill vacancies quickly, select people who will perform well, and hire people who will give sustained and long-term service to the organization (Stahl, 2003: 163).The purpose of this paper is to examine the processes of employee resourcing which include attracting job applicants, recruiting candidates and selecting employees for the workforce; and to discuss the significance of employee resourcing as an important function of the human resource management activities carried out by organizations.... Approaches to Employee Resourcing There are three paradigms or frames of reference that managers can use when undertaking employee resourcing functions. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), each paradigm may be suitable for a particular situation. The traditional paradigm represents established best practice in employee resourcing activities. The contingency-based paradigm accepts that different approaches to employee resourcing should be used for different types of situations. The new paradigm advocates innovation in the use of employee resourcing strategies according to the situation and needs that arise (Taylor, 2002: 16).As compared to traditional personnel management, human resource management (HRM) emphasizes more on finding people whose attitudes and behaviour are aligned with what management believes to be appropriate and contributive to productivity in the organization's working environment. The HRM approach to employee resourcing believes that matching resources to orga nizational requirements does not simply mean maintaining or ensuring the continuation of the existing conditions; on the other hand, it "promotes radical changes in thinking about the competencies required in the future to achieve sustainable growth and to achieve cultural change" (Armstrong, 2003: 347). The two fundamental questions addressed by HRM resourcing policies are: 1) What kind of people do we need to compete effectively both now and in the future' 2) What do we have to do to attract, develop and keep these people' Attracting Job Applicants and Recruiting Candidates Increased Use of Inside Recruitment Sources: Inside recruitment sources

Wong Kar Wai And Hollywood Cinema Film Studies Essay

Wong Kar Wai And Hollywood Cinema Film Studies Essay The world today is essentially a bifocal world. Filmmakers everywhere are concerned with their own national cinema, and then with Hollywood. The world today is divided into Hollywood and a serious of national cinema. As the most successful and influential Asian cinema outside Japan and India,  [1]  Hong Kong cinema as a transnational cinema, has so successfully emulated Hollywood to the extent that it has now been integrated by Hollywood. In this regard, commercialization and entertainment are what Hong Kong cinema and Hollywood cinema concentrated on. Especially Hong Kong cinema, due to it situates in a democratic and liberal society. The filmmakers have no boundary or limitation in filmmaking. Therefore, they pursue the films aesthetics and entertainment more than the fact of the society. Also, Hong Kong absorbs influences from the West and went on to localize and indigenize foreign cultures. And the community in Hong Kong has a strong link with its traditional Chinese culture, in many aspects had developed its own Hong Kong culture as well. So to speak, Hong Kong cinema has a strong sense of east-west identity. The geography, history and unique cultural identity of Hong Kong inhabitants have inevitably shaped the territorys cinema. Hong Kongs adaptability to change, cultural diversity and cosmopolitan lifestyle has led to a dynamic output of films that portray a distinct Hong Kong psyche.  [2]   The film of Wong Kar-wai attests to this tradition of filmmaking. Wong as the second New Wave of Hong Kong filmmaker who continued to develop the innovative and fresh aesthetic initiated by the original New Wave.  [3]  Since Hong Kongs 1997 handover to China, the local film industry was inclined to art-cinema wing instead of the action (Kung fu) tradition. And Wongs offbeat works got the world recognition even though he stands apart from the mainstream Hong Kong cinema. In the following paragraphs, the argument will be focused on Wong Kar-wais postmodern films in a relationship with Hollywood style. The narrational aspect of plot manipulates story time in specific ways. Jean Epstein summarized the relationship between narrative and time in the classical Hollywood film:  [4]   After dramas supposedly without endings, here is a drama which would be without exposition or opening, and which would end clearly. Events would not follow one another and especially would not correspond exactly. The fragments of many pasts come to bury themselves in a single now. The future mixed among memories. This chronology is what of the human mind. Contemporary Hollywood filmmaker like Quentin Tarantino, for example in his Pulp Fiction (1994, USA) uses the juggle story and plot time in ways that recall the complex flashback of the 1940s. Moreover, the switches in Pulp Fiction are not motivated as characters memories; the audience is forced to puzzle out the purposes served by the time shifts. In some of Wongs film, flashback has another expression. In Wong Kar-wais In the Mood for Love (2000, Hong Kong), the flashback applies to only one conceal scenario which begins with the male protagonist Chow Mo-wan (Leung Chiu-wai)  [5]  finds something is gone in his home, end with he notices there is a lip print on a cigarette. But it doesnt tell us what stuff he missed and who stole it until the coming scene of Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk)  [6]  comes (she comes to Chows home before), we realize the complete plotline. Unlike the flashbacks in Pulp Fiction or Reservoir dog (1992, USA) which is merely focuses on the rhetorical disposition of the narrative for the sake of suspense or surprise. Wongs flashback technique is more incline to highlight the aesthetics in actors performance relate to the important scenario. Like this scene, the two protagonists much-loved themes of loneliness, isolation, and longing rise to the surface. David Bordwell summarized the relationship between narrative and space in the classical Hollywood film:  [7]   In making narrative causality the dominant system in the films total form, the classical Hollywood cinema chooses to subordinate space. Most obviously, the classical style makes the sheerly graphic space of the film image a vehicle for narrative. We can see this principle at work negatively in the prohibitions against bad cuts. The important subjects should be in the same general area of the frame for each of the two shots which are to be cut together, but as long as the important subject is not shifted from one side of he screen to the other, no real harm is done. In describing the classical cinemas use of space we are most inclined to use the term transparent, so much does that cinema strive to efface the picture plane. The screen might be likened to a plate-glass window through which the observer looks with one eye at the actual scene. Contemporary Hollywood filmmakers have sometimes explored what has been called the web-of-life plot.  [8]  Instead of two primary lines of action, the tendency of the films pursues a large number of plotlines, often involving many characters. In the 1990s, such films as Quentin Tarantinos Pulp Fiction. The every single plotlines seem completely have nothing to do with another story, but usually they split off and converge from one and another. In Pulp Fiction, there are 3 stories, each one based upon specific characters. And the narratives are circular as well as intersected. The theme of the uncanny and destiny arises ranging from Butch (Bruce Wills) and Vincent (John Travolta), they meet each other for twice. First time they meet in a bar without a direct conversation. In the next time is concerned with Butch goes home for his watch (the only stuff his dead father left him) and comes across Vincent (implicitly come to assassinate Butch) in his toilet then kill him. In this rega rd, the sequence in the whole plotline is mysterious. Despite Vincent is already dead in the previous story, we still see him in the final part of the story in a restaurant with Jules (Samuel L. Jackson). Continue the unfinished story at the beginning. In Wong Kar-wais film, he doesnt follow this Hollywood narrative tradition. In Chungking Express (1994, Hong Kong), Wong creates a new style of narrative causality in space-time which he blends the theme of gangster and romantic-comedy together. This is the apparent feature of post-modern film. Seen from Wongs Chungking Express, it constitutes an intriguing experiment in nonclassical form. It has only about 6 major characters, but it is broken into 2 distinct stories, each organized around a different batch of characters and presented one after the other. Since both male protagonists are lovelorn men and policemen, originally we might expect them to encounter one another, but they never do. Even when the first story finish, everything related to the first story never appears again apart from one same locale. In Chungking Express, the connection between these two stories is they do share one locale: Both Officer 1 (Takeshi Kaneshiro)  [9]  and Officer 2 (Leung Chiu-wai) hang out a t the Midnight Express. Nonetheless, this doesnt connect these two parts. The characters in these two separate plots seem no intersection with each other. Merely the Officer 1 meets Faye Wong  [10]  once in the Midnight Express. Afterwards, the next story starts whereas Officer 1 never appears again in the next narrative. And the second obscure connection is while the mysterious blonde woman (the female protagonist in the first story) lounges outside a shop, Faye (whom we do not meet until part two) leaves with a stuffed toy (perhaps destined for Officer 2s apartment). Apparently, Faye is juxtaposed into these two coincidences by Wongs strategy in order to invite audience to seek the connections and unify the two parts of the film. From Chungking Express, we can see another general style in Wongs filmmaking. First of all, the notion of time is a pervading concept in all of Wongs films. In the first part of Chungking Express, officer 1 obsessively eats cans of pineapple with the expiry date of the 1st of May, for him, May 1st is his girlfriends birthday also its the end of their love. He convinces that everything has an expiry date, including love. However, for the female drug trafficker, May 1st is the end of her life if she could not find the group of Indian who stole her stuff. Indeed, Wongs films may not be directly or overtly political, however there is often an indirect relation to the political via Wongs conveying of a particularly intense experience of the period as an experience of the negative; an experience of some elusive and ambivalent cultural space that lies always just beyond our grasp.  [11]  In addition, Wong always ignores the characters identity, background and family. We just know they c all cop 223 and cop 663. Despite they have a home. We can only see the pineapple cans with expiry date and cop 223s desperation from this place. Cop 663s home is insecure. Faye often invades his home regardless of without aggressiveness. At the same time there is an escalator located beside his home, it is totally exposed in every passerbys eyes when go through it. Therefore Cop 663 lives under the unstable circumstance. Here, implicitly, once again Wong reveals peoples prospective confusion to their own identity related to the forthcoming handover in 1997. Thirdly, not only in Chungking Express, but also in most of his oeuvre, characters affection is the center of the attention. And Wong adores keeping them in the Platonic relationship. Rarely see the sexual scenes in Wongs film but the love between the two characters are aesthetic and pure. In the first part of the story, Officer 1 and the blond woman stay in a room without doing anything. Nevertheless, after Officer 1 leaves then he receives a happy birthday message from the blond woman. Obviously she still remembers May 1st is Officer 1s birthday because he told her last night, despite she gets into the trouble. Through Wongs oeuvre, Hong Kong becomes a metaphor for the characters and their varied existence. It represents an urban pastiche in which individuals struggle to come to terms with a sense of detachment and loneliness despite the territorys high-density population. Wongs endless array of possible scenarios and the navigation of his protagonists internal and external journeys in turn constitute an unravelling and reconfiguring of spatio-temporal constrictions.  [12]  Hong Kongs unique identity with its fusion of Chinese and Western culture and complex history provides opportunities for Wong to reveal and concerns with issues as varied as identity, emotion, future, etc via his frame. To some extent, we can define Wongs cinema is Hollywood in the way of expression such as the crosscutting, jump cuts and fragmented images. But as a poetic auteur, sees him delve into moments that are linked to both history and the personal in Hong Kongs community, whether directly or indirectly. Noti ons of identity and the ever-present fusion between East and West find context in the themes of love, loneliness and alienation that pervade his protagonists. Even though Wong doesnt belong to the mainstream in Hong Kong cinema, his films are never and ever being the foolproof and top grossing films. Nonetheless, we can not deny his contribution to Hong Kong film industry. Filmography Pulp Fiction- Quentin Tarantino, 1994, USA Reservoir Dog- Quentin Tarantino, 1992, USA In the Mood for Love-Wong Kar-wai, 2000, Hong Kong Chungking Express-Wong Kar-wai, 1994, Hong Kong

Objectification of Women in The House of Mirth Essay -- House Mirth Es

Objectification of Women in The House of Mirth      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth is an affront to the false social values of fashionable New York society.   The heroine is Lily Bart, a woman who is destroyed by the very society that produces her.   Lily is well-born but poor.   The story traces the decline of Lily as she moves through a series of living residences, from houses to hotel lodgings.   Lily lives in a New York society where appearances are all.   Women have a decorative function in such an environment, and even her name, Lily, suggests she is a flower of femininity, i.e. an object of decoration as well as of desirability to the male element.   We see this is very true once Lily's bloom fades, as it were, a time when she is cast aside by her peers no longer being useful as something to admire on the surface.   The theme of the novel in this aspect is that identity based on mere appearance is not enough to sustain the human soul physically or metaphysically.   Once she is no longer able to keep the "eye" of her peers, Lily finds herself with no identity and dies.   This analysis will discuss the theme of the objectification of women in a male dominated society inherent throughout the novel.    Lily Bart and her mother have been socially "ruined" in a sense because of the economic failures of their father and husband respectfully.   However, Lily's mother teaches her that she can still maintain a high social status if she marries well, i.e. a rich man. In fact, Lily's mother is known for making the most out of the least as she is "famous for the unlimited effect she produced on limited means" (Wharton 48).   In a society where women are considered valuable only for the appearance they present, it is impossible f... ...vel could possibly be that women are commodified from the cradle to the grave and that never in a male dominated society will they ever be fully appreciated as separate entities with whole identities equal and separate from males.      WORKS   CITED       Restuccia, F. L.   "The Name of the Lily:   Edith Wharton's Feminism(s)." The House of Mirth:   Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism.   Benstock, S. (ed.).   New York, Bedford Books, 1994, 404-418.    Robinson, L. S.   "The Traffic in Women:   A Cultural Critique of The House of Mirth."   The House of Mirth:   Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism.   Benstock, S. (ed.).   New York, Bedford Books, 1994, 340-58.    Wharton, E.   The House of Mirth.   New York, Bedford Books, 1994.    2                                                      

The Old Man & the Boy Relationship

The Old Man and the Sea is a heroic tale of man? s strength pitted against forces he cannot control. It is a tale about an old Cuban fisherman and his three-day battle with a giant Marlin. Through the use of three prominent themes; friendship, bravery, and Christianity; the Old Man and the Sea strives to teach important life lessons to the reader. The relationship between the old man and the boy is introduced early in the story. They are unlikely companions; one is old and the other young, yet they share an insuperable amount of respect and loyalty for each other. Santiago does not treat Manolin as a young boy but rather as an equal. Age is not a factor in their relationship. Manolin does not even act as a young boy; he is mature and sensitive to Santiago? s feelings. He even offers to go against his parent? s wishes and accompany Santiago on his fishing trips. Santiago is viewed as an outcast in his village because he has not caught any fish for more than eighty-four days and is therefore unlucky. Nonetheless Manolin is loyal to Santiago and even when his parents forbid him he wants to help his friend. Their conversations are comfortable, like that of two friends who have known each other for their whole lives. When they speak it is usually about baseball or fishing, the two things they have most in common. Their favorite team is the Yankees and Santiago never loses faith in them even when the star player, Joe DiMaggio is injured with a heel spur. In this way Santiago not only teaches Manolin about fishing but also about important characteristics such as faith.

Monologue of a Serial Killer

How was I supposed to know that this was wrong, when it felt so right? Everything my father has taught me is wrong†¦ He taught me not to love, taught me not to feel, have no compassion for others. How†¦how could this be wrong, my whole life a lie; that’s what it was, that’s what I could reduce it to, a lie. Where had my mother been when my father had been teaching me these things? Where had aunts, uncles, grandpas, grandmas, cousins†¦ teachers, anybody been to tell me, to show me that†¦that all of this was wrong. Wrong†¦that word doesn’t seem real now, and it will never truly seem real, because I’ve never known anything else. I sound like I’m trying to shoulder the blame but I’m not, I’m truly not; I just†¦I felt so accepted by him, and loved, so loved that I didn’t really need anyone else†¦you know, the kind of love where†¦where anything could happen, and that one person would still be there; still there listening to everything you ever have to say, any problems and they say one word, two words, a sentence and everything is better†¦everything is fixed. My father is the kind of person I always wished I was; strong, capable, a true man†¦a real man†¦someone I would never be. My father says my mother held me too much when I was a child; he had to get me away from her quickly, so†¦so he found something to bond us together, found something that my mother could never be a part of, would never be a part of. And my mother, my mother didn’t seem to notice how I changed. I changed so drastically in the space of about 5 months; my perspective on life changed, suddenly I started to view everyone as a victim, as an outsider, and eventually the only person I could trust was my father, the only person I believed was him; my father, my best friend, my partner, my mentor, the one person who I could go to, who I knew could never judge because his crimes are worse than mine, much worse. I’m told that I’m a victim in all of this; a victim of my environment, a product created by my father for his own means. How can I believe that? How†¦how can that be true after everything he said, everything we’ve done together, always together. I told him we shouldn’t have taken her, that last one; she was wanted, she had friends, she had a family, she had a future, she†¦she was somebody†¦loved. But he had to have her and I couldn’t tell him no, he was the master he’d say, and I was his student†¦a student still after 12 years, 12 long years stretching out behind me. When I look at those years now I see there was no love there, how could he ever love anything more than what he did to those girls? He was alive when I watched him do that; his eyes, they sparkled and twinkled in the night. I try to remember a time when I’ve seen him happy like that with my mother and I can’t†¦I can’t. I’ve seen him smile, obviously I’ve seen him smile, but happiness is something a child should witness from a parent in normal circumstances†¦but then again what’s normal? They say normal is gardening, cooking, cleaning, washing, golfing†¦perhaps driving, stalking, watching, learning, catching, cutting, killing, digging†¦burying†¦none of that is normal, so I’ve been told. My mind†¦my mind is mixed up and all I can hear is my mother crying†¦crying trying to convince herself that she didn’t know what was going on. I want to see my father, but I’m not allowed. As if anything he could say would influence me more than he has done already; there’s nothing they can say now to make me confess, to speak a bad word about my father. I am his†¦forever his†¦but he will never be mine.